Germany makes last-ditch attempt to save transcation tax:
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/30/us-eu-tax-idUSBRE82T15420120330
(Reuters) - Germany made a last ditch attempt on Friday to salvage the prospect of a financial transaction tax in Europe by proposing to apply the charge initially only to trading in company stock, but still faced resistance to its plans.
A document circulated at a meeting of EU ministers and obtained by Reuters describes a two-stage approach of advancing towards a "comprehensive financial transaction tax", with the first step being a scaled-down levy.
"The idea would be to move ahead with a tax on shares among those countries which are willing to impose a stamp duty-like tax, and then have the full tax including derivatives as a second step," said one European official.
A second source said there was still broad opposition to the tax among ministers.
"I think it is quite unlikely that we will see a Europe-wide tax," he said. "A number of countries are very, very firm on their belief that we should not have a Europe-wide financial transaction tax."
Germany has said the euro zone is the smallest feasible grouping required for a financial transaction tax to work, but one EU official said its watered-down plan was unlikely to succeed even at this level given tough resistance from Luxembourg and a lukewarm response from the Netherlands.
"It won't fly in the euro zone either," the official said.
Any pan-European plan needs the backing of all 27 member states to become law, although a smaller scheme is possible.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/30/us-eu-tax-idUSBRE82T15420120330
(Reuters) - Germany made a last ditch attempt on Friday to salvage the prospect of a financial transaction tax in Europe by proposing to apply the charge initially only to trading in company stock, but still faced resistance to its plans.
A document circulated at a meeting of EU ministers and obtained by Reuters describes a two-stage approach of advancing towards a "comprehensive financial transaction tax", with the first step being a scaled-down levy.
"The idea would be to move ahead with a tax on shares among those countries which are willing to impose a stamp duty-like tax, and then have the full tax including derivatives as a second step," said one European official.
A second source said there was still broad opposition to the tax among ministers.
"I think it is quite unlikely that we will see a Europe-wide tax," he said. "A number of countries are very, very firm on their belief that we should not have a Europe-wide financial transaction tax."
Germany has said the euro zone is the smallest feasible grouping required for a financial transaction tax to work, but one EU official said its watered-down plan was unlikely to succeed even at this level given tough resistance from Luxembourg and a lukewarm response from the Netherlands.
"It won't fly in the euro zone either," the official said.
Any pan-European plan needs the backing of all 27 member states to become law, although a smaller scheme is possible.
